February, 2014

According to multiple reports, notorious former North American Hockey League enforcer turned MMA fighter Steve Bosse has signed with the UFC. The French Canadian knockout artist will debut at TUF Nations Finale (*armpit fart*) on April 16th in Quebec City, Quebec.

Currently 10-1 in professional competition, Bosse is perhaps best known for his standing elbow KO of Houston Alexander at Instinct MMA 1 back in October of 2011. “The Boss” has fought just once since then, scoring a first round TKO via doctor stoppage over Caleb Grummet. We’ve thrown a video of the Alexander finish above, because when Houston Alexander gets knocked out, he does it FOR REAL!!

Standing across the cage from Bosse in his promotional debut will be fellow Canadian (and former CP guest blogger) Ryan Jimmo, who after scorching Anthony Perosh in just 7 seconds in his own UFC debut, has dropped two out of his past three fights to James Te Huna (via UD) and Jimi Manuwa (via mind-bullets). While losses to those two upper-echelon fighters aren’t exactly confidence-crushing, they have to be discouraging to a guy who was riding a 17 fight win streak into the UFC.

Fight Flicks is a new recurring column on CagePotato that focuses on overlooked, underrated, or just plain awesome fight-centric films currently available on Youtube. For our second installment, we focus on the Jackie Chan classic, Rumble in the Bronx.

There’s a saying where I come from, “The universe provides.” It’s rather self-explanatory, but basically, “The universe provides” posits that the keys to solving any problem, no matter how trivial, can be found in the world around us with the help of a little inventive thinking. It’s a pseudo-philosophical understanding of “Life Hacks“ among us self-reliant, redneck MacGyver types, if you will.

In any case, it’s a philosophy that was clearly not lost on Jackie Chan, who burst into the mainstream with his environment-as-a-weapon style of martial arts in the 1995 fight flick classic, Rumble in the Bronx. Although Chan had already gained notoriety in his native Hong Kong during the 70′s and 80′s with such movies as Drunken Master, Police Story, and Armour of God, it wasn’t until Rumble in the Bronx that Chan truly introduced audiences to his hyper-energetic style of fighting that was equal parts Chinese martial arts, parkour, and slapstick humor.

I’ve already spoke at length about my love of Rumble in the Bronx. From the insanely intricate fight choreography/stunts right down to the cartoonish acting and horrendous dubbing (and of course, Francoise Yip), I would defy you to name a more entertaining flick from Chan’s historic career (LALALALA CAN’T HEAR YOU DRUNKEN MASTER 2!!). No, Rumble in the Bronx features a hovercraft fight, a no-net, building-to-building jump, and the most astounding 4-minute “man vs. an army” sequence ever committed to film, and therefore stands above them all.

“I am deeply disappointed to be missing the action at UFC 170, but I am, as always, incredibly grateful for the support of my family, friends, management, the UFC, and most of all my fans during this minor setback,” Evans stated. “Thank you for your continued messages of support. I’ll be back stronger than ever!”

“Minor setback”? Props to Rashad for keeping such a positive attitude, because we’d be punching a hole through every wall in the house if this happened to us. Evans has had a history of poorly-timed injuries, from the previous knee injury that robbed him of a title shot against Mauricio Rua in early 2011, to the thumb injury that postponed his title fight with Jon Jones later that year.

For a 34-year-old athlete with over a decade of professional competition under his belt, a six-month timeout seems like a major setback — especially with Evans on the verge of title contention once again. Damn. Get well soon, dude.

Quarry retired from MMA two years ago on his own terms. There was no contract dispute, no falling out with the UFC top brass. The TUF 1 veteran stepped away quietly and respectfully, due to concerns about his own health and future. He had no axe to grind.

Then: We are not approving any sponsors that we don’t like their product.

Then: Your sponsors have to pay us a fee of $50,000 for the pleasure to sponsor you.

Then: Your sponsors have to pay us a fee of $100,000 for the pleasure to sponsor you.

If a sponsor has a budget of 10k to sponsor a fighter, they are then out. If there are 5 shorts companies in the UFC you can only go to them for a sponsorship. If they have spent their budget or don’t want to support an up and coming fighter they give you shorts instead of money. If you’re fighting for $6,000 to show and fighting 3 times a year, even $500 makes a big difference. When there is no competition they don’t have to pay you. I lost And1 as a sponsor when the UFC enacted the tax.

A mixed martial arts fight blogger lies in critical but stable condition after succumbing to the effects of a brutal 4-hour “liveblog” that nearly took his life Saturday.

Reports say that 31-year old Chip Chessworth, a quote unquote “MMA journalist” for FistFighter.com, sat down at his Brooklyn, NY apartment at 7:30 EST last night, with the assignment of “liveblogging” – or rapidly typing grammatically challenged round-by-round fight recaps — the UFC Fight Night 36: Machida vs Mousasi prelims for his website. A six pack of Red Stripe at his side, Chessworth was looking to shake off the memory of UFC 169, a “ten-decision, record-setting catastrophe” (as UFC President Dana White called it) that had claimed the lives of over 1,500 livebloggers earlier in the month, as well as report on what he hoped would be “a decent night of fights.”

“I had just spent my fourth straight Valentine’s Day alone, so I was really looking for some vicarious retribution in the form of a few sweet knockouts,” said Chessworth. Little did the lonely writer know that by the time the preliminary card was over, he’d be in a fight of his own. For his life.

Looking back on the ordeal, Chessworth says he should have realized that something was…off from the very first fight of the night. In a bout between UFC newcomers Douglas Silva de Andrade and Zuba…Zubariai Somethingorother, the liberal arts major said he could feel “a weird energy” in the crowd while watching the event on his 13” laptop screen.

“When Bruce Buffer is only spinning 90 degrees during the intros, you know you’re going to be in for a long night,” lamented Chessworth.

At the risk of upsetting another French brick shithouse, Riner’s anti-MMA stance reeks of ignorance. So in honour of UFC 170, I’m going to highlight four Olympians who have a good chance of crossing over. These athletes have either expressed an interest in MMA, supported it, or have an uncanny parallel with another well-known fighter. Lets run them down…

Outside of the Olympic games there isn’t a professional avenue for judo players, but MMA provides that opportunity, giving former judokas a chance to use their skill set to compete and make a living. Travis Stevens could be the next crossover star from the world of judo — joining the ranks of Rousey, Hector Lombard, and Yoshiro Akiyama — and he’s already considering MMA as a future career.

The 27-year-old American made his first Olympic appearance at the 2008 Beijing Games (where he placed 9th), and fell short of the podium again in London in 2012, losing out in the bronze medal match. Failing to capture an Olympic medal in two attempts puts Stevens in an awkward position. Does he jump into MMA now or wait around for the next Olympic games?

Stevens is not only a top ten Judoka in his weight division he also regularly trains under Renzo Gracie at his academy in New York, and more impressively is a black-belt in jiu-jitsu under grappling guru John Danaher. A double black belt is a testament to Stevens’ incredible ground game, which provides the perfect base to enter MMA.

Any sentiment related to the UFC and how they take care of their fighters (whether it’s about pay, insurance, or what have you) is bound to be controversial. Leben’s tweet suggesting the UFC discards their fighters once they’ve outlived their usefulness and leaves them as empty, “broken” husks was no exception. A firestorm erupted on twitter and otherInternet locales, with many fans insulting Leben and bashing the TUF Season 1 veteran. Their argument: Leben made more money than me, so fuck him. His drug issues are not my problem. Harsh words for a man who risked his mind and body to entertain so many.

The negativity ran deeper than the amount of decisions on the card—which was the most common criticism. A decision doesn’t necessarily equate to a bad fight. But a decision that lacks action and is fought between C and D level fighters who aren’t even known by everyone at their respective gyms, let alone the fans, does equate to a bad fight.

3. The baseline quality of the average UFC fighter is far lower than it used to be. The days of elite athletes fighting in the “Super Bowl of MMA” are long gone. Welcome to the age of lowered standards; The UFC needs warm bodies to fill out a Fight Pass card in Djibouti. The term “UFC caliber” means nothing.

For the time being, the UFC seems content to ignore these problems to focus on “World Fucking Domination.” They don’t realize marketing what amounts to UFC-branded regional shows in other countries is losing them their fans in the United States. Just look at TUF’s most recent ratings. Fans simply don’t care about the UFC like they did in the halcyon days days of SpikeTV, Brock Lesnar, and PPVs that didn’t hearken to boxing’s age-old strategy of a good main event preceded by an army of no-names. Fans don’t care because what’s there to care about? The product is, to put it simply, lacking. The few remaining big names are islands in a sea of wiki-less, generic UFC fighters™.

This is the situation Bellator finds the MMA landscape in as the Viacom-0wned promotion starts its 10th season…

(If you squint and look at Machida’s torso, you will see the face of the old wizard who taught his dad karate. / Photo via MMAJunkie)

I’m a glutton for punishment. After being stranded in North Carolina for most of this week due to snowstorms, I finally got back to Michigan yesterday, exhausted and displaying possible flu-like symptoms. I feel jet-lagged even though I never left the Eastern time-zone. That’s what four straight meals at a Marriott bar will do to you.

So it’s Saturday night and I figured, instead of catching up on sleep, why don’t I liveblog a low-level international UFC show with a main card that could drag on well past 1 a.m. ET? I don’t know, man. In another time, I’d probably be self-flagellating.

I, BG, will be putting live results from the FOX Sports 1 main card after the jump beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section or via twitter.